Uniting the Opposites

It has been raining for nearly three days now with a few breaks. We are so high here that sometimes the clouds rise up from the Mediterranean and wrap themselves around us. When I looked out last night nothing could be seen but a few house lights hanging in the dense mist. Earlier on I heard a few rumbles of thunder but the storm did not come our way. It was a pleasant synchronicity today that while reading Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani’s ‘The Secret of Secrets’ I came across the following ayat (verses) from the Qur’an which he introduces like this (translated by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti):

“Two of the four elements are earth and water, which are responsible for the growth of faith and of knowledge, give life to the living and appear in the heart as humbleness, for earth is humble. The other two elements are fire and ether. They are the opposites of earth and water. They burn, destroy, kill. It is the Divine that unites these opposites in one being. How do water and fire coexist? How are light and darkness contained within the clouds?

It is He Who shows you lightning, causing both fear and hope; it is He Who raises up the clouds heavy with rain.

Nay, thunder repeats His praises, and so do the angels, with awe. He flings the loud-voiced thunderbolts and therewith strikes whomsoever He will … (Sura Ra’d 12, 13)